


The Beast

by oublie (bella)



Category: The Expanse (TV), The Expanse Series - James S. A. Corey
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Culture, Alien Gender/Sexuality, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Implied Mpreg, Langbelta, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Non-Canon Relationship, Orphans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 11:24:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13247229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bella/pseuds/oublie
Summary: Kenzo was raised as an orphan along with his sister, and spent his childhood bouncing between brothels on Earth, Mars and the Belt. The only memories he has of his parents are sorrowful ones -- an Earthly mother with strange customs and a father who never came back for them.When he's caught stowing away on the Roci, he comes face to face with his biology and his heritage, and realizes that he and Amos might have much more in common than anyone would have imagined.(This is a short, non-canonical WIP/prompt set during Kenzo's time as a stowaway on the Roci. Inspired by Kenzo's strange hatred of Amos at first sight -- methinks the lady doth protest too much?)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm a new convert to the fandom of the Expanse so please, forgive and correct my errors.
> 
> This is all in good fun -- I own nothing of The Expanse, and make nothing from this story.

“Well, aren’t you just full of surprises.”

The beast from the airlock was in the doorway, leaning too-casually on one hip and watching Kenzo with a look of open satisfaction. 

Kenzo shivered.  
“I told you: just let me talk to the captain. I can explain — “  
“Cap doesn’t wanna talk. And there ain’t no explaining this one, sweetheart.”

Kenzo’s mind flashed past a thousand possibilities. The microchip in his leg throbbed, even though he hadn’t been able to feel it for the last sixteen years, and shouldn’t have been at all aware of its presence. Sweat broke out on his brow; he ignored it.

If he could just speak to the others, alone, then they could be persuaded. This man… this thing, so blank, so impossible, so stubbornly resistant to Kenzo’s natural charm — this thing could not be reasoned with.

The beast was watching him, assessing…the gaze started at his eyes, then fell further south. Kenzo didn’t flinch; attempts at sexual intimidation has been par for the course on Mars, and he was seasoned at ignoring them.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  
The beast shook his head, rueful, the edge of one lip curling up in a smile — or a sneer.  
“And to think — I was all set to blow you out an airlock.”  
“And why didn’t you?” 

Kenzo felt angry; frustrated with himself, frustrated with this situation, frustrated that this thing, this idiot in front of him was the only thing standing between himself and freedom. He blinked twice and checked his headspace, but the communication relay was still down, no signal getting through. Kenzo felt helpless and, for the first time since he’d become a wandering spy, hop-skipping through the black universe, he felt alone. 

“Then? ‘Cuz Cap said no.” The beast furrowed his brow. “But now…ain’t now way I'm gonna hurt a _vedikori_.”  
Kenzo’s heart pounded; he felt sweaty all over, now. The beast moved, shifting to the other hip, but the movement was too quick and startled Kenzo.  
“You’re jumpy.” he said. “Is that one of your tells?”  
The beast was making that full-on crooked lip lift now, the half-smile. Kenzo hated it, and hated him, and resented him for suggesting that a professional spy had a tell. He bit his tongue; there would be time enough for vengeance later.  
  
“What’s a _vedikori_?”  
The beast’s eyebrows lifted in what appeared to be genuine surprise, and the air in the room changed — like a cloud lifting. Then, abruptly, it fell again.  
“I don’t like the dumb ones. Don’t care if you smell pretty or not.”

Kenzo’s irritation transmogrified into disgust. Was this some kind of come-on? A clumsy attempt at forcing him into some sort of captive sex scenario? Amanya had taught him better than to be frightened by brutes like this. 

_Dem big, but your power — bigger. ___  
Kenzo worked his jaw, stared the beast straight in his eyes. Inside of him, his little miasma of power felt vibrational and disturbed. He drew on it anyway, as he always did.  
“Sweetheart. Pretty. What, do you want me to suck your cock? Is that it?”  
If the beast was shocked, he didn’t show it; just raised that half-smile of his and stared at Kenzo with those blank, distant eyes.  
“No, that’s not what I want."

The beast was coming forward, into the room now, and Kenzo felt violated in some unexpected, primal way. He glared daggers at the beast.  
“What do you want?” he asked, and something of his fear must have slipped into his tone, because the beast cocked his head and came a little farther forward, boots clicking into place with each step. Kenzo held his ground, floated midair with his legs crossed, unmoved and unmoving. The beast looked into his eyes — into him, almost — and pulled back.  
  
"You really don’t know.” he said, and there was something else in his voice — awe.  
Kenzo’s arms felt itchy; he struggled to keep still.  
“Don’t know what?”  
“What you are.”  
"So?" Kenzo snapped, nerves fraying. "What am I?"  
Amos smiled.  
"The same kind of animal as me."


	2. Chapter 2

Kenzo’s heart fell out of his chest before he recovered. Fuck the beast and his mindgames; he must have hacked Kenzo’s personal file somehow, must have done some sort of digging, found an informant, that was why he’d come down here, that was why he was doing this, that was why he was torturing Kenzo like this, it must be, it had to be — 

In his panic, he accidentally called up the memories; images flashed before his eyes — Amanya in the brothel, and he still a child, whimpering on the floor beside her bed, hiding in the cool darkness of her room. 

The factories on Mars, his little fingers perfect for reaching into all the tight spaces, and the grinding noise that the stone-eaters made.  
Amanya meeting the Mistress, and telling Kenzo that they wouldn’t be hungry anymore; that they would have a safe place now.  
And Amanya, crying, promising Kenzo that their father was coming back, he was, he was, and Kenzo realizing that their mother had been lied to, and now she was dead.  
Amanya realizing that it was his turn, and that he had only one chance to be saved.  
Then the dead of night, him sneaking off in their only shuttle, learning for the first time the lengths of his power, and recognizing Amanya’s choice.  
…and in the low glow of the cockpit lights, hearing his father’s voice singing strange songs, and seeing his mother’s face in the stars. 

 

Then he was back in his hot little prison cell, and the beast was staring him in the eyes.

He should lie.  
He should reject the very idea that he was anything, anything but _pure Earther_ , anything special or strange or out of place.  
Instead, he weakened, and Amanya would have laughed.  
“What?” he said, and his voice broke.

The beast wasn’t blinking; just kept staring at him, _past_ him with those unfathomable eyes. Stupid starfucker. Even the airlock had been better than this. Kenzo shivered again, involuntarily. Then the beast blinked and spoke, slowly.  
“You’re an elderblood.”  
Kenzo rolled his eyes, mouth tightening. He’d heard that word before, remembered it on Amanya’s lips, but that had been a long time ago and she had been fucked up on some drug or the other and it had been meaningless to him. And then again, from some drunk old Martian in a boomtown when he’d been tending bar, and once more on Ceres, whispered as if someone were calling his name. He’d assumed it was an insult. Everything on Ceres was an insult.  
_Elderblood._  
“Yeah, you’re not the first — “  
“So am I, and so was my daddy.”

And Kenzo stuttered then, because the thread was too thin for him to let go of; he had given up so long ago on ever finding anyone quite like Amanya and himself, finding any explanation of where they’d come from or how they came to be this way. And the universe — so far as he’d seen it — had offered no answers; there had been only his dead mother, and an unforgiving, starless sky.

The beast let his lip down; the sneer fell away, and his mouth was straight.  
“I couldn’t smell you before, but I can now. You’re an elderblood, same as me, only you’re a _vedikori_ , and I’m a _mimchesha_.”  
Kenzo flicked his eyes over the man’s face; he seemed suddenly nearer.  
“What does that mean — _vedikori_?”  
The beast’s lip curled again in a more genuine sort of smile.  
“It means I’m a boy, and you’re a girl, and our kind ain’t gotta go extinct just yet.”


	3. Chapter 3

Later that night, the Beast came back. 

Kenzo was feeling hungry and irritated by then, and unsettled by miles. The room had gotten unbearably hotter; alone, he had dimmed the overhead lights and stripped off his top layer of clothing, down to just his sleek temperature regulators and undershirt. 

The beast smiled when the door slid open.  
“I’m glad I was right.” he said, and stepped into the room. 

The temperature seemed to skyrocket with the addition of a new body; Kenzo grunted his frustration and pushed away, toward the far wall and the cool dark corner in which he’d abandoned his clothes. The Beast eyed it, then him.  
“That’s your nest?”  
Kenzo looked over his shoulder at the pitiful, damp pile, then back to the Beast.  
“No.” he answered, defensively, then looked at the pile. “What nest?”  
Amos frowned and shook his head.  
“You must’ve got separated real early. Even the little vedikoris know how to do this.”

Then the beast came closer, closer, closer, and he passed by and went to the right and began pulling spare sheets and heat blankets off of the bed and out of the storage closet and dumping them on the floor. 

Kenzo watched cautiously, from a distance. Without turning around, he began to explain.

“You’re a vedikori. That means you’ve got a heat cycle that usually comes around twice a year. Once if you get too skinny. Three times if you got a lot of blood in you, but none of us do anymore. It’s supposed to start when you’re younger than we are, so you must’ve been around the New People all your life. Otherwise, you’d’ve been through this, and you’d know what it feels like when it’s coming.”

Kenzo thought back to that hot night in Amanya’s room, him crying and she shushing him.

“Some vedikoris just wait it out alone. Some spend it with a friend.”   
The Beast finished dumping the soft linens onto the ground, and turned to look directly at Kenzo.  
“But either way, you’ve gotta make a nest.”  
The pieces fell in. Another memory surged up, when he’d been 19 and tending tables for the Mistress; Amanya had caught him afterhours with his pants half off his hips, knees apart and his ass on an old Martian’s lap. She’d screamed — genuine horror — and he had scrambled up and she’d dragged him by his ear into a back room.

_Don’t let dem fuck you unless you want get baby. Ke? You can feed baby, beratna?_

Kenzo regarded Amos with a new concern.  
“And what happens to you, then? While I’m doing this, while I’m…in heat. What does a mimchasha do?”  
The bigger man flushed red, suddenly, and Kenzo presumed he must have embarrassed him somehow.  
“I just meant — “  
“Nothing bad’s gonna happen to you.” Amos muttered, frowning. 

And Kenzo must have looked at him with actual fear in his eyes, because the beast’s eyes shuttered, and he leaned back.  
“I ain’t like that. I can promise you.” the big man looked down at his hands, pushed them together, then apart. “Anyway, enjoy your nest. I'll bring you some food later.”


End file.
